Melanie Walker Biography

Dr. Melanie Walker is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Deputy Director for Special Initiatives, where she and her colleagues oversee a portfolio of high-risk, experimental, and learning initiatives across a variety of challenges. She came to the Foundation in 2006 as a Senior Program Officer after working for the World Health Organization in China. Prior to this, she spent more than a decade honing her abilities in both health and development, as a result of her on-the-ground experiences as a practitioner in low-income settings. She is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine and has a hospital-based practice at Harborview Medical Center in addition to her work at the Foundation. Dr. Walker received a summa cum laude from the University of Texas in Austin's honors program. She returned to her home state to matriculate at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where she was awarded a medical doctorate with an honors thesis outlining a novel statistical methodology for analysis of functional MRI, after completing a Robert Wood Johnson Pre-Medical Scholarship at Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago. Dr. Walker went on to finish post-doctoral studies at the California Institute of Technology, as well as postgraduate surgical training at Pasadena's Huntington Memorial Hospital. She also completed a residency in neurology and a cerebrovascular disease fellowship at the University of Washington School of Medicine, as well as the Harvard Medical School Palliative Care Practice Program, where she was appointed a faculty scholar. She has a long list of publications in peer-reviewed journals and regularly gives talks on issues relating to her clinical interests. The American Academy of Pediatric Neurosurgery recently awarded her the Hoffman Endowed Lectureship, and the World Economic Forum designated her a Young Global Leader. She is also, without a shadow of a doubt, the world's worst cook.

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